Travel assistance method, road captured image collection method, and roadside device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12067875-B2
Application number	US-202017633168-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 21, 2020
Priority date	Aug 6, 2019
Publication date	Aug 20, 2024
Grant date	Aug 20, 2024

Abstract

Provided is a system which can reduce load on a travel controller that performs a danger avoidance operation by preliminarily detecting a significant event without increasing an amount of ITS communications, thereby providing suitable assistance for travel control of autonomous vehicles. When a vehicle 1 passes through a certain section of a road after an in-vehicle terminal 4 has detected a significant event while the vehicle 1 is traveling in the section, the in-vehicle terminal 4 transmits event data (images and other information related to the event) to a roadside apparatus 6 at an end point of the section. The roadside apparatus 6 transmits the event data to another roadside apparatus 6 at a start point of the section, which in turn transmits the event data to an in-vehicle device in another vehicle entering the section so that the device can perform travel control based on the event data.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A travel assistance method, wherein, when a vehicle passes through a target section of a road after an information source in-vehicle device mounted in the vehicle has detected a significant event while the vehicle is traveling in the target section, the information source in-vehicle device transmits a captured image and additional information related to the significant event to a roadside device,
wherein when the roadside device does not receive, for a defined period of time, vehicle-traveling-data-recorder (VTDR) information indicating presence of a vehicle equipped with a VTDR and a device for delivering images, the roadside device starts detecting a significant event, and captures an image and additional information related to the significant event detected by the roadside device,
wherein when the roadside device receives the VTDR information, the roadside device stops detecting a significant event, and receives the captured image and additional information related to the significant event detected by the information source in-vehicle device,
wherein the roadside device transmits the captured image and additional information related to the significant event acquired from the roadside device or the information source in-vehicle device, directly or through a different roadside device to an information destination in-vehicle device mounted in a receiver vehicle which starts to travel in the target section, and
wherein the information destination in-vehicle device performs operations related to travel control based on the captured image and additional information related to the significant event.

2. The travel assistance method according to claim 1 , wherein the additional information includes:
section information on the section through which the vehicle has been traveling;
direction information on the direction of travel of the vehicle;
event information on the significant event;
vehicle position information on the position of the vehicle in a map at the time of detection of the significant event;
event location information on the location in the captured image at which the significant event has occurred; and
time information on the time of detection of the significant event.

3. The travel assistance method according to claim 1 , wherein the information destination in-vehicle device determines that the receiver vehicle is approaching the location of the occurrence of the significant event, based on a similarity between the captured image related to the significant event and a current captured image.

4. The travel assistance method according to claim 3 , wherein, when determining that the receiver vehicle is approaching the location of the occurrence of the significant event, the information destination in-vehicle device outputs a danger avoidance operation instruction to a cruise controller.

5. The travel assistance method according to claim 1 , wherein the information source in-vehicle device transmits the captured image and additional information related to the significant event to an end point roadside device located at an end point of the target section,
wherein the end point roadside device transmits the captured image and additional information related to the significant event to a start point roadside device located at a start point of the target section, and
wherein the start point roadside device transmits the captured image and additional information related to the significant event to the information destination in-vehicle device.

6. The travel assistance method according to claim 1 , wherein the information source in-vehicle device is mounted in the vehicle which travels in the target section in a first direction,
wherein the information destination in-vehicle device is mounted in the receiver vehicle which travels in the target section in a second direction opposite to the first direction, and
wherein the roadside device is configured to:
extract an image of a moving object that appears in front of a view blocking object from the captured image acquired from the information source in-vehicle device in the vehicle traveling in the first direction;
calculate the position of the moving object in a second captured image which was acquired in the past from the information source in-vehicle device mounted in a vehicle which traveled in the second direction;
generate a composite image in which the image of the moving object is overlaid on the second captured image based on the calculated position of the moving object; and
transmit the composite image as the captured image of the significant event to the information destination in-vehicle device.

7. The travel assistance method according to claim 1 , wherein the significant event is a traffic accident,
wherein the roadside device is configured to:
store and maintain therein a captured image and additional information related to the significant event acquired from the information source in-vehicle device or the roadside device; and
transmit, in addition to the latest captured image and additional information related to the significant event, a captured image and additional information which have been maintained before capturing the latest captured image and additional information in the roadside device to the information destination in-vehicle device.

8. A road captured image collection method, wherein, when a vehicle passes through a target section of a road after an information source in-vehicle device mounted in the vehicle has detected a significant event while the vehicle is traveling in the target section, the information source in-vehicle device transmits a captured image and additional information related to the significant event to a roadside device,
wherein when the roadside device receives the captured image and additional information related to the significant event detected by the information source in-vehicle device, the roadside device transmits the captured image and additional information related to the significant event detected by the information source in-vehicle device to a server device,
wherein when the roadside device does not receive, for a defined period of time, vehicle-traveling-data-recorder (VTDR) information indicating presence of a vehicle equipped with a VTDR and a device for delivering images, the roadside device starts detecting a significant event, captures an image and additional information related to the significant event detected by the roadside device, and transmits the captured image and additional information related to the significant event detected by the roadside device to the server device,
wherein the server device stores and maintains the captured image and additional information related to the significant event, and
wherein, in response to a view request with specifying a location from a user, the server device presents the captured image and additional information related to the significant event at the specified location, to the user.

9. A roadside device comprising:
a roadside-to-vehicle communication device configured to communicates with an in- vehicle device;
a processor,
wherein the processor is configured such that,
under a situation where, when a vehicle passes through a target section of a road after an information source in-vehicle device mounted in the vehicle has detected a significant event while the vehicle is traveling in the target section, the information source in-vehicle device transmits a captured image and additional information related to the significant event to the roadside device,
when the roadside-to-vehicle communication device receives the captured image and additional information related to the significant event transmitted from the information so

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ueno Tsuyoshi
• Muramatsu Shintaro
• Nakagawa Yoichi
• Aihara Koichi
• Yasugi Makoto
• Sudo Hiroaki

Classifications

• G08G1/0969

  having a display in the form of a map · CPC title

• G08G1/096775

  where the origin of the information is a central station · CPC title

• G08G1/096716

  where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control · CPC title

• G07C5/008

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title

• G06V20/44

  Event detection · CPC title